Insecurity, corruption in Nigeria signs of failed state, bad governance, says Northern group

A Northern-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Wadata Communication, has attributed the killings and kidnappings, especially in the region to corruption and lack of good governance in the country.

The group insisted that the menace plaguing the North was an indication of a failed state whereby the Federal Government has become helpless in combating the challenges.

Its Project Manager, Zubair Abdurra’uf Idris, identified corruption as the driver of poverty, unemployment and other vices presently bedeviling the country and exacerbated the challenges of insecurity in Nigeria.

Idris made the assertion during a town hall meeting in Kaduna at the weekend, where he lamented that communities now glorify and adore questionable characters with honours and chieftaincy titles without properly scrutinising their sources of wealth.

“Every year Nigeria and Nigerians take second or third position from the rear in the perception index of corruption among nations,” he said.

Idris, who frowned on the level of corruption in Nigeria, stressed that all hands should on deck to confront the menace head on, adding that all Nigerians should join hands together to reverse the narrative for the country’s development.

He noted that the essence of the meeting was to appraise the new concept on how to fight corruption, with a view to reducing it to the barest minimum.

He charged the community leaders to take lead by sensitizing their respected domain on corruption tendencies and hold themselves accountable.

Also speaking, a lecturer from the Department of Sociology, Kaduna State University, Professor Hauwau Evelyn Yusuf, said Nigerians should accept that they are all corrupt, noting that most Nigerians use entrusted power for personal gains.

“We may not know that the effects of corruption are poverty, loss of national wealth, increase in crimes and lack of security,” she said.

In his keynote address, an associate Professor at Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Dr. Yahaya Onipe, described insecurity as the greatest obstacle to national development, adding that in Nigeria of today thugs have become the most valuable elements in society.